Foreign Literature and Science. 205 



ic iron ; it is compact, and crystallized in dodecahedrons, 

 but more often in trapezohedrons, and accompanied by 

 pyroxene. Upon the west side of the mountain, occurs an 

 amygdaloidal stone, consisting entirely of massive garnet, 

 with almond shaped masses of calcareous spar, and cavities 

 containing crystals of scapolite. 



At three leagues distance is the little river Vitjie, which 

 flows upon a bed of ophite and serpentine. These rocks are 

 decomposed to many feet in depth. There have been obtain- 

 ed from them nearly ten quintals of native gold. This met- 

 al is found at Nerviansky in quartzy veins traversing the 

 talcose slate and accompanied by iron pyrites, converted 

 partly into ochre. For more than seventy leagues, in extent 

 of the Ural chain, magnesia, in the form of bitter spar, is dis- 

 tinctly predominant in the metallic deposits, either in veins 

 or beds ; sometimes in the place of the quartz, the quantity 

 of gold not being diminished. The mines of copper appear 

 in the neighborhood of beds of primitive limestone, between 

 these and the argillaceous schist, or the talcose slate, or else 

 in the diorite. At Preobasjenskoi there is a considerable 

 quantity of crystals of chromate of lead, of different modi- 

 fications not in the hills of sandstone, as has been under- 

 stood, but in the talcose rocks, in a talc slate, which often 

 assumes a granular aspect, by its mixture with grains of 

 quartz, and by the excess of magnesian limestone. Sand- 

 stone is not found in the Ural, at least to the north of Jek- 

 aterinenbourg. In general, in this chain of granite extending 

 two hundred leagues, there are but few spots where search 

 is made for the precious stones, such as the amethysts, the 

 topazes, the beryls, &c. — Ibid. 



4. Sapphire in the Emery of Naxos. — Fragments of em- 

 ery from Naxos were ground between two plates of tem- 

 pered steel, and the powder was washed with oil. The 

 first powder which was precipitated having been examined 

 with a very powerful magnifying glass, was found to contain 

 perfectly regular crystals of sapphire. — Ibid. 



5. A new combustible gas. — In the philosophical trans- 

 actions for 1827, Dr. Thomson describes a gas which may 

 be obtained by slightly heating together in a flask 1| oz. 

 muriatic acid, half an oz. nitric acid of commerce, and half 

 an oz. of pyroxylic spirit, all by measure, and collecting it in 

 glass jars over mercury. It burns with a lively bluish white 



